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Windows 7 Classic Start Menu.... is here.


jim2029

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Honestly, I don't get it...

I was a huge fan of the "Classic" start menu but I navigate this new menu the exact same way except that the menu's dont cascade.

What am I missing here?

Same here, I know I will not downgrade to Windows 7 if the classic start menu is not there. I hate how microsoft changes everything around just to make it harder for the end user.

Windows 7 is by far the easiest operating system to learn they have ever come out with. I have been showing it to some of my older customers and they just "get it"...when they couldn't with Windows XP. The things people here are calling "eye candy" are far more than that. Sometimes you just have to pull your head outta your a** to see that not everything Microsoft does is bad.

In this case it is, I mean why remove something so simple? I have a couple windows 2008 servers and that OS even has the classic option.

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In this case it is, I mean why remove something so simple? I have a couple windows 2008 servers and that OS even has the classic option.
Because Server 2008 is Vista, and Server 2008 R2 is Win7? It was removed from Win7 because they wanted the interface to die, and for people to use the new start menu / taskbar. Classic is comfortable because we've been using it for ~15 years, but after moving to the new interface I can't say I feel like I'm missing anything.

To each his or her own, of course, but I feel I do less clicking and less searching with the new interface. If you really want the old and still want to use Win7, this project is probably for you then.

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Where are you seeing menus that don't cascade? They cascade exactly as they did in XP, except they are contained in a box with scrolling.

Well, what I meant in my first post is that the menu doesn't cascade out into the screen. I'm not sure how people took my post by some of the replies I've seen but I'm actually a BIG fan of the new menu...don't see the big stink about the old one being gone...

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I personally think the issue here is more about choice than anything.

M/S know thousands of people use classic so it should have been there as a choice with the other choices like aero.

For those of us who prefer classic style , it is our choice....hell i dont even have desktop wallpaper half the time.

I just want it clean and simple with all the b###sh#t turned off so i have a system that works and does what i tell it to...

Not that M/S ever listen but stop trying to panic manouver yourself just becasuse google decide to write an o/s, cheaper editions before release indeed lol and free versions for picture partys, grief M/S get a grip and sit down and get on with the O/s and stop worrying about google, cos no matter what happens people will vote with their feet.

Its their Choice!!

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Why? ... Why would you take a modern operating system and want to revert back to an archaic navigation mode?

For those who want the ancient start menu this seems like a decent option. However, as a 15+ year IT veteran, I agree with you. The old Start Menu was a broken, poorly designed turd of a navigational method and 7's is FAR superior and easier to navigate. I think you'd have to be nuts to go back.

That said...there are a lot of nuts people out there, and I'd rather see them happy than giving me the stinkeye :)

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I can't believe how anybody could actually prefer the Vista/7 style star menu?

I'm a big fan of 'Classic Start Menu' and wish it'd make a return for several reasons:

1. It's quicker! It appears quicker, doesn't take so long to generate a list of programs etc. as the Vista/7 Start Menu does

2. For somebody who uses keyboard shortcuts almost 100% of the time, Classic Start Menu enables me to do that (for instance, I can start Mozilla Firefox by going Win Key -> P -> M -> Enter or can log off by going Win Key -> L)

3. Classic Start Menu is far easier to control via Group Policy .... much better suited to professional environments

4. I hate the 'Mickey Mouse' UI of Vista/7 !!!

5. I like the fact that the Classic Start Menu cascades ..... if I see that on another system, I can remember how I found a particular app much easier than I can with the Vista/7 style Start Menu.

In response to whoever mentioned about cascading menus on small screeens ..... don't nest so many folders in the Start Menu then ;)

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I just want to say, stick to your old OS if you dont like to try out something new! Dont blame on newer OS without upgrading old system hardwares they require, if there is something new, then we have to spend some time to learn and to have habit of it. I never be agree with people who always keep saying "Linux is better than windows" , are they trying to prove that over 80% people ( official figure, except pirated windows users ) using windows are idiots who choose windows over linux, linux which is even free while windows is paid?

so far, I dont have any complains regarding win7 even didnt/dont have with vista! upgrade your PC and everything will run smoothly!

on wikipedia..

As of July 2009, Windows had approximately 93% of the market share of the client operating systems for usage on the Internet

p.s. I should post this msg on some other topic related to win vs linux but I couldnt hold myself.. :puke:

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Hello World!

I had to take part in this discussion.

I was searching through the internet regarding Classic Start menu in W7 and it seems Microsoft did a great marketing job: It seems that whenever someone says: "I want classic start menu back" there are always one ot two answers, just like Copy/pasted "don't live in the past" "you are old school" "it's time for progress"... blablabla.

These look just like ordered texts.

What is the truth?

I also work for a big company as an admin. I really think this new start menu, the way of navigating in Windows Explorer and even the new way of navigating using taskbar will be a serious disaster.

Actually, I think that this whole concept is "invented" just to give the possibility to the IT people to earn more money on providing lectures and assistance to the users.

The way of navigating through folders, "Library way of thinking", colorfull windows, lack of Quick Launch, new way of navigating the windows are more complicated than they were before. Those new techniques are not close to the way how human brain (of the majority of people) thinks.

Usual way of thinking of a regular person is the "tree way of thinking": You have one instance that creates more of them and all of them create new instances. That was all about the old classic menu.

That is one of the reasons why people hated Vista and were stick to XP.

Now when you have to move to W7 because MS will stop XP support, companies are in a deep trouble.

MS, please give us the opportunity to choose, not all the people are clever as your programmers or your marketing managers.

Some (vast majority?) will never understand your "Library concept" of Users folder, or the way Start menu/Taskbar works in Windows 7.

Thank you.

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Usual way of thinking of a regular person is the "tree way of thinking": You have one instance that creates more of them and all of them create new instances. That was all about the old classic menu.
I'd actually argue that the "tree way of thinking" isn't how most people work, but how most people were introduced to computers 15 years ago. My parents have never been very computer saavy, but when I've shown them the new ways of navigating through Vista or Win7, they've always asked "Why didn't they think of that in the first place?" My father takes many pictures. By many, I mean roughly 5000 per year. He's always taken his favorite pictures and made separate copies of them in different folders so that he could select those for printing or editing or whatnot. With the picture rating system and tags, he no longer needs to make duplicates of the pictures. To find them again? It's a simple search (which is very quick because of WDS4).
That is one of the reasons why people hated Vista and were stick to XP.
Most people hated Vista because of driver incompatibilities and OEMs shipping systems with insufficient hardware. Most people are, sadly, too blind to look at the real source of problems, and were quick to point the finger at Microsoft.
Some (vast majority?) will never understand your "Library concept" of Users folder, or the way Start menu/Taskbar works in Windows 7.

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat. Teach a man to fish, and he'll never go hungry.

Again, I'll use my parents as examples (they are by any definition, the average 50-60-ish year old users). The "problem" with the various new features in Vista and Win7 is that most people can't figure out how to use them (or try to use them "the old way"). The original thread was in reference to using the classic Start Menu on Win7. Yes... you might know that Solitaire is located under Start->Programs->Accessories->Games, but honestly... why should we be clicking that many times? Start, type "sol", hit enter. Done.

My girlfriend recently got a new laptop, which I installed Win7 onto for her as well. She asked me shortly after things were setup, "Where's the User settings in the Control Panel?" My reply: "Press Start, Type 'User', hit enter". Less clicking, less searching, less work for you the user.

People are resistant to change, it's as simple as that. Vista was given a wash of bad rap, and now that the humor of the Mac vs PC ads has degenerated to "zomg Vista sucks" (and people are getting sick of them), most people I've talked to are growing to list Vista and Win7.

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  • 1 month later...

Well said, Zxian.

It seems clear that there are individual preferences and those are driven by different things including habit, experience and need. while I find that overall I need to click about 20-30% more in Vista and W7 than I do in Server 2003 to get the same amount of work done (this includes Office 2007), the average user who doesn't access the Network Center and items in the Contorl Panel is very happy. Every single one of my customers for whom I've set up in Vista over the last couple of years is very happy still with the performance and operation. Of course, I tweaked them and added on various userful utilities to make life easier. W7 goes one better for all that.

The Start Menu for most folks is a mess. Most seem to really hate nested folders and cascading menus preferring a long unwieldy list. I've tried helping folks organize into logical folders, but when I see the machine maybe six months later the Start Menu has grown to unwieldy proportions. Guess it is just human nature. Personally, I hardly ever use the thing! I use the Quick Launch bar on the right near the System tray and put the Taskbar at the top (where all program have their menus and such!). I have 30-40 shortcuts there on the dropdown list which is easier to access. By the way, you can put folder there which will expand just like in the Start Menu (though I don't do that).

My major beef about new OSs is when they remove functionality that they don't have to. In XP they allowed folks to choose between the new look and the old. I may not like the old cascading "classic" menu, but it is not hard to make it available. The P in PC stands for Personal and sometimes I think they forget that. As advanced users we often find ourselves not catered to and that is a shame as we drive a huge amount of the general usage out there and folks rely on us to give good advice. I am annoyed that MS didn't give us more shortcut functionality in 2008 R2.

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The P for personal computer came at a time when computers were all giant mainframes. It wasn't meant to denote that it was Burger King and you could have everything "your way" ;). But in all seriousness, the more most folks use the new start menu and taskbar, the more they like it almost to a person. However, there will *always* be folks who want the old way, and fortunately (or unfortunately, however you look at it) they will either have to stay on their older OSes that do things the way they want and give up (in increasing amounts as time goes on) hardware, driver, and software compatibility and vendor support, or they'll have to hack something on as this project does. There's nothing wrong with it, and using the best tool for the job is almost always the best way to approach these sorts of things, but it's always wise to give "the new" a try before you simply fall back on the old. It might work for you, it might not, but you won't really know until you force yourself to try for a week or three, and then see how it does or does not work for you. The start menu/taskbar change is no different, and you can bet Microsoft spent millions on this one thing alone in user acceptance testing, considering they spend billions on the project as a whole.

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When i launched Windows XP for microsoft in 2001 one of my first calls was how to revert to the previous start menu. I had a coworker who launched windows 95 years earlier, and he said his first call was from someone who wanted the file manager for the shell instead of explorer.exe. Somethings never change...

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